From the DEE Researchers Database

Decades of experiments have focused on how the facial pits enable rattlesnakes and other pitvipers to direct predatory strikes toward the thermal radiation emitted from warm-blooded prey. Now, work done in the laboratory of George Bakken in the Department of Ecology and Organismal Biology at Indiana State University indicates that the pit organ is, in fact, a general-purpose vision-like sense with multiple roles in snake biology. Bakken and PhD Student Aaron Krochmal (now on the faculty of the University of Houston - Downtown) tested whether western diamondback rattlesnakes could use their pit organs to detect thermal radiation from the environment and use this information to find resting sites with favorable temperatures. They found that snakes with open pits could find cool refuges from a hot environment, but lost this ability when the pits were blocked. Further studies (in collaboration with Travis LaDuc, University of Texas) tested a dozen species of pitvipers from a wide range of habitats and representing major phylogenetic nodes, and found that all could use the pit organ to locate cool refuges. They concluded that thermoregulatory use of the pit organ is an ancestral condition for all pitvipers. Because thermal radiation signals from the environment are stronger than those from prey items, thermoregulation may in fact have driven the early evolution of the pit organ. (Journal of Experimental Biology 206: 2539-2545 and 207: 4231-4238.) (In the picture, Aaron Krochmal and George Bakken prepare to block the pit organs of a western rattlesnake with tiny Styrofoam beads and aluminum foil.)

Guidelines
for applying for the Raymond B. Huey competition for Best Student
Presentations (oral and poster)

Students entering the Competition must submit a 1-page DEE Competition Abstract (formatted as a pdf file) during the regular abstract submission process.
This
1-page Competition abstract is in addition to the normal abstract
required to be submitted to SICB.To
be considered for the Huey Award, students MUST
submit both their presentation abstract (by standard registration
practices on the SICB website) and their extended DEE Competition
Abstract
by the posted society-wide deadline for abstracts. No late
submissions will be accepted.

Guidelines
for compiling the 1-page Competition Abstract:

Submit a title and your name and affiliation.

Use
12-point fonts with 1-inch margins.

One
small figure may be embedded in the 1-page extended Competition Abstract.

The extended abstract must be saved as a pdf file and uploaded through the general abstract submission form.

Abstracts
should be pitched more broadly than journal abstracts or the
society-wide abstract submitted for the meeting, rising above the
mere details of the project to point out the significance of the work
in plain language. We are especially interested in key tests of big
ideas, new syntheses of formerly separate areas, and applications of
ecology and evolution to global problems.

Guidelines
for submitting the 1-page Competition Abstract:

Abstracts
are to be submitted through the abstract submission form.
All submissions must be received by the posted deadline for
society-wide abstracts. No late submissions will be accepted.

PLEASE
NOTE – 1. Students must submit both their society-wide abstract and the DEE Competition Abstract
via the SICB website. 2. When submitting, students MUST
select the appropriate presentation format and Best Student Presentation division on the abstract form. Students must upload the extended abstract via the form by the posted deadline for
society-wide abstracts.

Eligibility, Content, and Criteria

A certificate and monetary prize will be awarded for the Best Contributed Paper, and
the Best Poster presented by a student at the Annual Meeting. Students who have not yet
taken the Ph.D. degree, as well as new Ph.D.'s who have received the degree not more than
12 months prior to the meeting, are eligible to compete for the awards. The work presented
must be original and must be carried out principally by the student presenting the paper
or poster. Students submitting abstracts of work to be presented at the Annual Meeting may
apply to compete for the awards. A student who applies must be a member of the Division of
Ecology & Evolution, and a prize can be awarded only once to any student. If in the
opinion of the judges, none of the papers or posters presented is deserving of an award,
the awards may not be presented that year. In the case of a tie, duplicate awards may be
presented. The Chair of the Division will appoint annually a three-person Awards Committee
who will act as judges. All papers identified as competing for the prize must be attended
by at least one judge, and preferably by all three. No member who has a student competing
for a prize shall be eligible to serve as a judge.

Criteria for judging papers and posters are modeled after those used in the judging for
the 1989 Best Student Presentation Competition. Each judge receives, in advance, an evaluation
form that has the name of the student, the paper or poster number, and a copy of the
abstract. The form is provided to aid the judge in evaluating the paper or poster for
content and presentation. The content and presentation of the paper or poster will be
judged upon:

Content (60%)

Originality of the research

Efficacy of approach and methods used

Freedom from statistical or analytical flaws

Logical connection between conclusions and data

Importance of research

Presentation (40%)

Clarity of the objectives

How well the presenter helped the audience follow the various parts of the presentation
and recognize the parts as integrating into a whole

How well the presenter integrated the presentation into the fabric of science
represented by the work and showed the importance of the contribution to the field